New TiVo Roamio boxes launched in the US

TiVo has launched a new Roamio box in the US. There's no word if this hardware will arrive as part of the Virgin Media service but it shows where TiVo are taking their products.
Nice looking box. More at http://www.tivo.com/

Film4 HD is still a Virgin Media exclusive

If you ever thought VM took an age to launch an HD channel whilst Sky seems to fire them up at a stunning pace, spare a thought for the poor Sky customer hankering for Film4 in high def. Sky announced the channel as coming soon last year but it's still not there and is still vaguely touted as "coming soon later this year". Virgin customers have enjoyed this superior movie channel in HD as part of its XL package since July 2010. And the picture quality on Film4 HD knocks those premium-priced Sky movie channels out of the park.

UPDATE: One more to make it a golden 50 HD channels on Virgin Media

With the arrival of ESPN and BT Sports 1 and 2, we now have 49 HD channels on Virgin Media. What should be 50th? My vote would be for Sky Atlantic (yeah, I know, "change the record, Nialli").

UPDATE: How wrong am I? Turns out we already have fifty, as something called as NHK World HD is available on Channel 625 (XL pack). I've never watched it as I never venture through the 600s in the channel listings.

BomberAF posts today on Sky Atlantic HD and other missing Sky HD basics

BomberAF has posted over on Cable Forum's Coming Soon To Virgin Media thread today that Sky Atlantic, Sky News and Sky Sports News will all appear in HD on Virgin Media before September 14th. He was on the money with BT and ESPN (albeit a little wayward with the date) so let's hope he's right with this one. Odd that his CF profile has him only as a Sky customer though. And, of course, very un-PC for me to assume Bomber's male...

BT Sports and ESPN channel numbers

	Channel
BT Sport 1	547
BT Sport 2	548
BT Sport 1 HD	549
BT Sport 2 HD	550
ESPN	529
ESPN HD	530

BT Sport and ESPN confirmed and free for XL TV customers (press release)

Virgin Media scores the winner with BT Sport

·         Virgin TV, the only place for every major UK sports channel in one subscription

·         BT Sport at no extra cost for millions more sports fans thanks to Virgin Media

Virgin Media today scored the winner as BT Sport arrives on Virgin TV.

The landmark deal means millions of sports fans¹ will get BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN at no extra cost and every channel in glorious HD.

Virgin Media already offers all the Sky Sports channels, with Sky Sports 1 and 2 in HD, making Virgin TV the only place sports fans can enjoy every goal, try, penalty and heart-stopping sporting moment with one, great value subscription. 

Dana Strong, Virgin Media’s chief operating officer, said: “Virgin Media homes are kicking-off the new season with the most complete sporting line-up around in one simple subscription, from Barclays Premier League football and Aviva Premiership rugby to F1, live golf and the culmination of a great Ashes series. We’re excited to announce our deal with BT, making these fantastic new channels available at no extra cost to millions of Virgin TV viewers and in HD as standard.”

BT Sport will be available at no extra cost to sports fans in every Virgin XL TV home. Other customers will be able to either upgrade to Virgin XL TV, with over 200 fantastic channels or, for £15 a month, add BT Sport – BT Sport 1, 2 and ESPN and all HD variants – to their existing TV package.

BT Sport will also be made available on Virgin TV Anywhere, the award-winning cloud-based entertainment service for mobiles, tablets and online so Virgin TV fans can follow their team in the pub, at the shops and even at the in-laws. BT Sport on Virgin TV Anywhere is coming soon.

BT Sport joins Virgin Media’s outstanding sporting line-up of Sky Sports 1, 2 (currently Sky Sports Ashes), 3, 4, Sky Sports 1 and 2 in HD, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports News. All Virgin Media pay-TV subscribers can enjoy the British Eurosport and Sky Sports News channels as part of their TV package.

BT Sport adds 38 Barclays Premier League matches and Aviva Premiership rugby coverage to Virgin TV alongside:

• Hundreds of top-flight football matches from Italy, France and Brazil
• Women's Tennis Association matches from 21 tournaments
• 2013/14 FA Cup
• Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League
• UEFA Europa League
• German Bundesliga

¹ From today, Virgin XL TV subscribers will be able to watch BT Sport at no extra cost. Other Virgin TV customers can upgrade to Virgin XL TV or subscribe for £15 per month. For the full line-up of Virgin TV channels, please visit www.virginmedia.com/tv

Was Bomber AF right???

Quick poll for Cable Forum visitors - "was Bomber AF well informed with his predictions of BT Sports, ESPN and Sky Atlantic arriving in August?". Poll results below:

Yes, I think so	102 (26%)
Not sure, but I hope so	162 (42%)
No	70 (18%)
Don't care	47 (12%)

Votes 381
Poll closed 

So was he/she right? I think the info was good even if the actual dates proved a little premature. Fingers crossed for Sky Atantic then, even if it's a little later than originally suggested.

BT Sports channels almost appear on Virgin Media TV Anywhere

If you have a look at the Virgin TV Anywhere page and hover over the two "BT Sports" sized holes in the Sports Channels line up, you'll see that they're placeholders for BT Sports 1 and 2...

UPDATE: and then they were gone, within minutes of me posting. The screen shot is not faked...honest!

New channel numbers for the UKTV HD stable

Watch 125 has moved to 191

Dave 129 is now 194

Alibi 131 moves, oddly, to 200

The stupendous Eden HD jumps from 209 to 210

And Good Food HD is on 262 (from 261)

Can anyone see any logic in these shifts for the entertainment channels? There's a concentration of HD channels in the high 100s (BBC2, ITV2, 3, 4, Syfy and now the UKTV ones) making the whole thing a real buggers' muddle. and why Alibi is now 200 (start of the Documentary range) is very odd.

Sky Bravo rumours

Interesting story on mediaguardian that Sky are considering launching a male-orientated channel, possibly with the name Sky Bravo. No doubt the various ne'er-do-wells and gloom merchants who seem to choke up threads on Cable Forum and Digital Spy are already speculating that Virgin Media won't carry it (I don't read those regularly any more - there's only so much I can take of nstokes, dave42 and co) but this paragraph from the Guardian's story is interesting:

It is understood that the launch of the channel is likely to be put on the back burner, in the short term at least, as it has not managed to gain a distribution deal to air in Virgin Media's 4 million-plus households.

Does Sky consider carriage on Virgin Media as essential? The suggestion would be that it's at least a major consideration for the mighty Sky. So whither Sky Atlantic on VM? I've heard no more...but I'm still hopeful.